RedneckJeep

My whole point with this was to bring the point back up for discussion that many have made....but we've not really discussed much. When you do re torque and you've applied Locktite, if you move the lug nuts, the Locktite bond is broken. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to remove all of the nuts, clean them off, reapply Locktite and torque them back to spec. In essence, they would never get re torqued. They would always be torqued upon assembly....over and over. I think the companies that "recommend" Locktite, do so at the their own liability, because they are banking on the customer NOT re torquing to begin with. I've been at this a long time and I have YET to see a properly torqued acorn lug nut back off and none had Locktite applied. The factories have never required or even recommended Locktite on wheel studs and they use the same type fasteners as these wheel spacers do. I've not seen any of the aluminum spacers yet, but the Teraflex ones I have are very high quality so I suspect the same is true for aluminum....although I still would not use aluminum in that application. Just personal preference. Does it "hurt" to use Locktite? No, I guess not. But why then have yall not used it before? I'm sure yall had vehicles with acorn lug nuts before. Your Jeep was before the spacers. I mean, for decades, no one has ever recommended Locktite for lug nuts and all of a sudden makers of aluminum wheel spacers say to use it. That kinda throws up a red flag to me.

nclehmann

I torqued my Spidertrax to 100ft/lbs with red loctite. I then torqued the wheels onto the spacers at 95ft/lbs. Each time I've rotated my wheels I re-torque the spacers to 95ft/lb so I don't break the seal (theoretically at 100ft/lbs). I put the wheels back on at 95ft/lbs once again. I've rotated every 3k miles now for almost 15k miles and have never felt the spacer nuts loose.

I plan to get new wheels and tires, along with a lift this summer, so I'll have to take the spacers off. Let's see how easily they come off! I'm hoping that I don't damage the studs due to the loctite.

falconfixer

My take on this is for peace of mind. I applied loctite and torqued to spec. I, too have never seen a wheel come off when it's properly torqued but I'm anal and look my vehicle over routinely. I can't see the nuts holding the spacer on behind the wheel so the loctite gives me a little pice of mind.

Here's a little sumthing extra for anyone to ensure that the torgue isn't broken. Redneck, you've prolly dun this but I'm going to throw it out there for others. Get a marker or equivalant and run a line over the nut and end of bolt. If the nut is backing off, it's a very clear visual as the marked line will be off. Does this makes sense?

RedneckJeep

Perfect. We did this on the drag cars we had. Really handy.

Northridge4x4

shouldnt you just follow the MFG specs?

Spidertrax includes red loctite and tells you to use it. So... Use it

David

falconfixer

for the life of me I cant remember what the shit is called but we used it on aircraft and it's like some snot shit you gloop on there but a paint pen works for our applications

quickster47

On some production hardware we used a product called 'Glyptol' but you can also use white, or any other color of your choice, fingernail polish.

Carl

RedneckJeep

Right. I'm not arguin that. I'm just sayin that Teraflex does NOT recommend it anywhere in their instructions, AND that no auto manufacturer ever required it on similar lug nuts. I'd still like to hear Teraflex's input, though.

seer1

I wonder if it's the difference between using aluminum and steel. If it's steel like the TF, then the material is very similar to the axle hub. If aluminum like the Spidertrax, there will probably be different rates of expansion contraction. For what it's worth, the Superior Chromoly rear axles recommend using Loctite on the lug nuts even without spacers.

RedneckJeep

Now, THAT could be a very legitimate difference, indeed. The Teraflex spacers use beveled acorn nuts as per OEM, so there's the same amount of surface area as OEM. Interesting that Spidertrax chose to go about it differently.